Fun with Household Items

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O had a great time playing with this extra storage container turnstile at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house last week! She put the 7 dwarves and princesses in it and said it was a carousel. It's fun to watch a child's imagination at work!

3 Years Old!!!

My baby girl turned 3 years old today! I can't believe how quickly the last 3 years have passed, but I can't really remember life before O :) She's the joy of my life and I treasure every moment I spend with her. I'm so glad that I started this blog and our private family blog to record all of our special moments together. It's such a treasure to look back and show her all of the things we've done and the fun we've had.
O was very excited about her #3 shirt that I made using a freezer paper stencil. We had a very busy, fun, and wonderful day today. Our day started with breakfast in bed for the birthday girls (my mom and O share a birthday). They had cinnamon rolls (O's favorite), watermelon, cantalope, blueberries, and organic milk. After breakfast we took the boat across the lake to a small waterpark where we played for about 3 hours. O said she had FUN! She was very brave and swam by herself with her froggie vest on (usually she won't let us let go of her). After playing in the water for about 3 hours, we went out for a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant where O had her first taste of flan. She loved it, of course :) We decided to watch a movie since we were having an afternoon thunderstorm, and we enjoyed watching Shark Tales. We ended our day of fun by having Guh-guh's favorite cake...angelfood cake topped with whipped cream and blueberries. What a wonderful day for our 2 birthday girls!

A Recycled Ring

The idea for using a milk top to make a ring came from another blog, but I can't remember where :) Sorry about that!
O decorated the ring top with puffy fabric paint.

She added a flower to the top, and she was done!

O also cut and painted straws to string for a necklace, but we never actually finished that project. So many projects, so little time...

Big Sister/Baby Sister Shirts

My applique obsession continues! I told O that I was going to make a "big sister" shirt for her, and she said "and you need to make a baby sister shirt for my sister." I thought that was a SUPER idea, and it was so sweet of her to think of her sister :) It was a bit tedious to cut out the letters, but I like how they turned out. There are so many edges that I think it is likely that they will fray. However, I plan to wash them (inside out) on delicate and hang them to dry. Also, I may iron over the letters again after each wash in the hopes that they will last longer.

O's 3rd Birthday Party

O's 3rd birthday party was on Saturday, and we had a GREAT time!

We had a bubble table that was quite a hit!


On Friday night, O told me to make sure to write "Happy Birthday" on her giant chalkboard.


The kids each filled a bag with treats of their choice. O asked if she could fill a treat bag, too, because she really wanted glitter glue and a fruit strip.


I don't normally buy individually wrapped snacks, but I made an exception for O's party :)


My sister put a towel under the sweet pea teepee for the kiddos. O sat under the teepee with her friends to open her gifts.


The highlight of the party was this incredible inflatable water slide that O's Grandaddy Harry bought for her! She's still a little intimidated by the large slides, but she likes the smaller, tunnel slide, and the bigger kids had a blast! (Elliott was deflating the slide when I took the picture).


It was a wonderful party, and we are so thankful for everyone for helping us prepare and for attending :) After the party, we rested and cooled off before taking the boat out in the lake for a while. Then we packed up and left for vacation. I don't recommend leaving for vacation on the same day as a party...it's quite stressful, and I forgot to pack SO many things! Blog posts may be scarce this week since we are busy relaxing, and the internet connection is spotty.

It's Potty Time!

Well, not yet, but we're getting ready! We're planning to start EC (in conjunction with cloth diapers) shortly after Little Kicker is born, so I was excited to buy these potties from IKEA. We'll keep one upstairs, one downstairs, one in the car, and one at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house. O is so excited about the potties. Her baby dolls have been using them, and she thought it was hilarious when she sat on one of them :)

After reading the comments, I realized I might need to clarify...the potties are for the new baby. Click on the EC link to read more about EC...it's very intriguing :) We used EC with O starting at about 10 months, and she's been potty trained since she was around 17 months old (although she still usually wears a diaper at night...her choice).

Party Preparations

We've been preparing for O's 3rd birthday party all week, and she has been working right along with us :)

She and Guh-guh made her cake and cupcakes a few days ago. We froze the cake and cupcakes and thawed them on Friday to decorate.

O and Guh-guh made #3 sugar cookies. The cookies ended up looking like blobs after they were cooked, but they still taste good and that's what is important!

Then O decorated her own cake! Guh-guh spread on the white icing, and then we set O loose with all of the decorations :) She had a great time, and she was SO proud!

Here is her cake before I added "Happy Birthday, O" to it. I hope that it will become a tradition for her to decorate her own cake each year :) It will be interesting to watch the progression of her decorating skills as she gets older.

Chocolate Covered Frozen Bananas

Guh-guh and the girls had a delicious treat on Wednesday! They froze bananas and then dipped them into melted dark chocolate. Yummy! They discussed how the frozen bananas made the chocolate freeze and harden when they dipped the bananas in the chocolate. This was a great activity for O since she has been asking "what makes hot? and what makes cold?" lately. The girl likes details, and we ended up calling her daddy at work so he could explain how the hot water heater worked (in detail!). My girl is full of questions!

"I might be an artist one day!"

O has enjoyed painting unfinished wooden picture frames to give as birthday gifts. While she was painting she said "Mama, I might be an artist one day!" I love to watch her paint, especially when she is really into it :)

Excavating Treasures in Ice

O and her cousin, M, had a GREAT time excavating treasures from ice yesterday morning! This activity started about 2 weeks ago when I gave each of the girls a plastic container and sent them off on a treasure hunt around my mom's house for them to find small objects suitable for freezing. We filled the containers with water and put them in the freezer...and forgot about them for 2 weeks :) Guh-guh and Grandpa had the girls all day while my sister and I went shopping (I love IKEA!), and this was a fun activity for them to do. They used warm water, cold water, hammers, forks, etc. to excavate their treasures. After they finished excavating the treasures, they immediately filled the containers with objects and water again, so they can do this activity again soon!

I just searched this blog to see when we did this activity last summer, and we did it almost exactly a year ago (July 8 this year and July 7 last year). What a coincidence!

Miniature Bowling Game

I've wanted to make a mini bowling game for O since I saw a similar game on a blog around Christmastime. I can't find the blog that I saw this on, so I apologize for not linking :(
To make this game, I ordered 10 mini bowling pins from Casey's Wood Supply. I painted the pins using acrylic craft paint and used paint pins to make the dots. After the paint dried, I painted the pins with a layer of mod podge to give them a matte finish. The wooden ball is from Hobby Lobby. This game will be one of O's handmade Christmas gifts. I'm glad to have another item from my list completed!

What to do with stained onesies???

Tie-dye, of course!!! I have lots of stained hand me down onesies, so we decided to tie-dye them to make them beautiful :) I found a tie-dye kit at Michael's in the clearance section (it was normally 20 dollars, and I paid 5!), and we had a tie-dye party for Little Kicker on July 4th. It was fun to have Little Kicker's grandparents, aunt, cousin, and all of us (Elliott, O, and me) involved in making something for her. We tie-dyed 14 onesies, a t-shirt, 4 shirts for the girls (O & M), and 4 adult t-shirts, and we still have 5 packets of dye left!!!



Little Kicker is going to be a hip little kiddo :) After I took this picture, O said "I don't think 15 onesies are enough."

A Sea Shell Necklace

While we were at the beach we collected shells with holes in them so we could make sea shell necklaces! We originally planned to use dental floss for the necklaces, but I didn't like the idea of O having dental floss around her neck, and it would have been very difficult for her to string the shells onto the floss. Then, I realized that pipe cleaners would be perfect. It was easy for O to put the shells on the pipe cleaners, and I didn't have to worry about the necklace being a strangulation hazard :)

O was very proud of her necklace!

A Sea Shell Sculpture

We were so busy playing in the sand and water at the beach that we didn't have time for beach crafts. However, we brought shells home so we could craft at home :)

To make a sea shell sculpture, we mixed up plaster of paris.


Then we poured the plaster of paris into a large shell. O put smaller shells into the plaster to make her sculpture. This was a simple and fun activity!